For some time athletes, coaches, shoe designers, and physically active individuals have desired shoes with good grip and traction. In many outdoor sports (e.g., golf, baseball, soccer, and football) cleats are used to provide improved traction. Further in many athletic activities played on hard surfaces, such as courts, the athletes are often required to stop quickly, pivot, jump, and/or reverse direction. These movements rely on the shoe's traction. There are many other reasons why improved traction is desirable, including, safety for people walking on surfaces. Similarly, it has been desirable to provide better traction and friction on rubber surfaces in general, whether or not related to athletic shoe traction. For example, it is desirable to have increased traction and friction for gripping a rubber surface or walking on a rubber surface. Examples include rubber handle grips in the work context, rubber gloves for gripping, treads on flooring and steps, rubber soles on work boots or other non-athletic shoes, grips on athletic equipment, including, but not limited to exercise equipment, baseball bats, racquets, and clubs.
Inventions directed at improving traction have varied from external devices added to shoes (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,862,310 (“Adjustable Shoe Traction Device”)) to shoe sole designs (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,316,662 (“Safety Traction Athletic Shoe Soles”)). With respect to court-sports, e.g., basketball, indoor volleyball, racquetball, one problem that has been identified and associated with poor traction is the build-up of micro-debris that often accumulates on sport courts. Potashnick, (U.S. Publ. No. 2006/00112416) discusses this problem and offers a proposed solution for using an adhesive roller to remove the micro-debris from the sole of the shoes to address the reduction of traction caused by the micro-debris. This, however, only addresses the reduction in traction caused by the build-up of micro-debris and does not actually improve traction on the shoes. Other attempts at addressing the problems with shoe traction, particularly for indoor use, have included the addition of pressure sensitive adhesives with tacky resins. See, e.g., French et al. (U.S. Publ. No. 2011/0314706). However, testing has demonstrated that the adhesive technologies are problematic for a number of reasons. One problem is that many, if not all, adhesive technologies require harsh chemicals that remove the dyes and colors nearby surfaces, e.g., the side of shoes. Further, the adhesive coatings collect and build-up micro-debris and dirt, which actually reduces the traction. The adhesive coatings often mark the surfaces which the coated rubber surface is in contact with (e.g., streaks and marks are left on a basketball court). Additionally, the adhesive coatings require frequent reapplication to maintain good traction. Other problems exist and some are evaluated in the examples section of the present application.
Accordingly there is a need for a compound useful for improving traction of rubber surfaces. Furthermore, there is a need for a compound useful for improving the traction of rubber surfaces that is non-adhesive.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the claimed invention to develop non-adhesive coating compositions that improve the traction of a rubber surface.
A further object of the present invention is to provide rubber surfaces with improved traction.
A still further object of the invention is to provide methods of improving the traction of rubber surfaces.